


We Are Friends That Hug

by kjstark



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Episode Related, F/M, M/M, Multi, OT3, Pining, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, S01E13 - For The Girl Who Has Everything, seriously so much pining Winn makes me upset but I love my tiny son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 17:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5975995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjstark/pseuds/kjstark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was here for Kara, dammit. Now it’s not the time to think about absolute impossibilities or the way Kara’s curves are different from James’ but they’re both incredibly gorgeous in their own right. And it isn’t the time to think about how unmistakably bisexual he was, and how Kara wasn’t interested and James was the straightest, probably, most likely – ugh, whatever. Not now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Friends That Hug

James poured liquor into three tiny glasses for them to take and just as soon as the hard, bitter liquid rolled down Winn’s throat his mind began to loosen up enough to give him a clear sound, a voice, words. _‘Come back to us, Kara. We need you’_ , James had said at the DEO base, when Winn’s heart was beating too hard inside his ribcage and Kara’s was beating steady, unaware. Back then Winn couldn’t spend too much time thinking about those words, about the ‘us’ and the ‘we’, about how James could’ve said ‘me’ and ‘I’ instead, or about how he could just mean ‘us’ as in all four of them.

“He was panicking, it would’ve been funny if it weren’t for the fact that we were really scared Cat was going to fire you,” James was telling the story of how bad of a liar Winn is, but Winn couldn’t really hear him. Because now he was thinking about Alex saying how Kara needed both of them, not just one or the other and it stuck in his head.

James looked at him as he cracked another laugh and Winn looked back, lazy eyelashes blinked and he took another sip.

“Well, I can’t wait to explain to Cat that you thought you were being funny and that my ankles are absolutely not swollen,” Kara said and Winn’s eyes moved from James to her.

 _‘Cause we are friends’,_ he had said and he meant it. Kara and he are friends, the best friends, and so is James, with them. And Winn thought he wouldn’t find more ways to hurt himself, but then he did. And it’s now that’s becoming clear in his head.

 _‘I should buy some property in the friendzone,’_ he had joked to James some days ago, and it was the truest thing.

Because now Winn was in two friendzones, in the squared friendzone.

He laughed out of the sudden, a shaky exhale and then all eyes were on him.

“You okay, Winn?” was Alex asking. And Kara’s smile was tentative and James’ eyes were warm, and damn, they were both so unbelievably beautiful and out of reach.

“I was thinking about Hank tripping on your heels, Kara,” he lied, he joked, he swallowed. That was funny, but nearly as painfully hilarious as it was as to fall for both of your co-workers, your against-evil teammates.

“Oh my god, yes!” James followed, clapping his hands and covering the entire room with his easy laughter, and Winn stopped holding his breath.

He was here for Kara, dammit. Now it’s not the time to think about absolute impossibilities or the way Kara’s curves are different from James’ but they’re both incredibly gorgeous in their own right. And it isn’t the time to think about how unmistakably bisexual he was, and how Kara wasn’t interested and James was the straightest, probably, most likely – ugh, whatever. Not now.

He took another sip and he listened carefully James’ story about Hank and then Alex shared in some other tale about her boss.

“I can’t believe he let you guys in so easily,” Kara said and Alex was nodding as she drank from her glass, agreeing.

“He said he was beginning to understand why you value them so much, and I knew you needed them,” Alex told her sister. And Winn and James shared a look that absolutely did not produce anything in Winn’s insides. “I guess, that’s how much Hank cares about you,” Alex finished, and James smiled, knowing more than Winn did.

“I think he sees you as his daughters, his family,” James said, setting his glass down, looking at the Danvers sisters. Alex inhaled deeply and Kara smiled at him.

“I know I’ve said it before-“

“Oh, please, no more movie quotes,” Winn complained, gaining his composure, he aimed his glass at James and he poured more liquor into it.

“I’m not quoting more movies!” Kara yelled, amused. “I just wanted to say thank you, so much, I didn’t ever think my life would ever be like this and if this thing has taught me anything is that, well, my life it’s pretty good,” she told them, eyes moving between all the three people in the room.

“Even with Cat Grant?” Winn joked, raising one brow.

“Even with Mrs. Grant,” Kara assured, shrugging. “You two are the best friends anyone could ask for,” she confessed, putting one hand on Winn’s knee and looking firmly at James as he bit his lower lip before smiling at her, but then he looked at Winn, who was looking at Kara’s hand on his leg as if it was the very Black Mercy itself, and suddenly all three of them we’re looking at each other, silently. They were inside a little bubble of their own but before Alex could caught up on anything, Kara spoke again: “And you are the absolute best sister,” she said with a wide smile. And her hand moved away and James eyes were on his glass now, the moment gone. Winn adjusted his cardigan tighter because he was left feeling cold.

Kara shifted uncomfortably on the floor to wrap an arm around Alex and if Winn saw Alex’s soft smile curve up a little awkwardly he didn’t mention on it.

“Ok, if we’re gonna get emotional I’m opening the ice cream,” James said as he moved from his spot on the couch to the floor beside the little living room table. “What do I get you?” James asked him and Winn almost startled. “Chocolate or strawberry?”

“Oh, both,” he told James, and he tried not to laugh. Of course Winn wanted both, if only they knew. James passed him a cup with two balls of ice cream and Winn didn’t almost hiccup because their fingers brushed, no, he didn’t.

“Kara?” James asked, going back at the ice cream and grabbing an empty cup. “Both, too?” he guessed.

Kara turned to him and nodded, smiling. “Yup,” she said, simply, but Winn closed his eyes and pretended it was because of the ice cream. Kara was taking the cup from James’ hand when he opened his eyes again.

“Alex?” James called.

Alex blinked away from the trance she’d been just in and when she opened her mouth to speak her phone beeped. She took it out her jean and read the message. They room tensed up.

“Everything okay?” Kara asked, in full Supergirl voice.

Alex sighed and then realized they were expecting her to speak. “Ah, yes,” she reassured. “It’s Hank, apparently they’ve dig up some intel from Lord but he refuses to say more unless it’s to me,” she explained, somewhat annoyed as she picked herself up.

“I see he still has a thing for you, huh?” Kara said, unamused. And Alex replied with a sigh.

“Are you okay with me leaving?” she asked Kara and she shrugged in response. Alex rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Of course you are, what am I asking? You two,” she turned to them, “take care of her,” she ordered them. Winn nodded three times and James assured her with a “We always do”. Then she patted Kara’s head on her way out and then closed the door behind her.

When Alex left the room fell silent for longer than Winn was comfortable with, being honest.

He ate his ice cream silently and listened to Kara lick her spoon attentively, trying with every ounce of his will-power and self-control to not allow his mind to make up scenarios that would lead up to embarrassing reactions of his stupid body.

James’ sigh brought him back from his internal struggle. “I’m really glad you guys are friends again,” he said, setting down on his lap his own cup of ice cream.

Winn took another bite of his ice cream while Kara nodded slowly. “Yeah, well, I needed some time to reconsider what was more important,” he confessed to them. Yes, he still loved Kara with a crushing passion, but he understood that it was more important for him to be there for her in any way she needed, it was more important his own need for her –not romantic or sexual need, just, the need of her being near, being there. Kara was Winn’s constant, it didn’t matter how much more he wanted from her, getting a bit is better than getting nothing.

And there was also the fact that his life had never been this exciting. What he was doing with Kara, with James, it was bigger than him, it was important. He wasn’t going to let a stupid unrequited crush ruin that for them, for him.

He might not tell his grandchildren that he got the girl at the end, but he will tell them he did something awesome with his friends, something beyond amazing.

“You guys are more important,” he spoke again, after taking a deep breath. “What we’re doing, what you’re doing, Kara. That’s more important than some stupid, unnecessary feelings I might’ve had for you,” ‘both of you’ offered Winn’s mind but thank God he could control his brain-to-mouth filter. James didn’t need to know Winn’s been having him in his dreams since the last month. He’s done a remarkable job in keeping himself from wondering how James’ soft lips would feel against his own.

 _‘Nobody wants to be in a relationship with someone who wants to be with somebody else,’_ he had told James some days ago, because was fucking stupid apparently. Because Winn expected James to deny him, to say: ‘No, Winn, I do. I want to be in a relationship with you and Kara’. He should’ve known better, but instead he just tried to give an advice and basically ended up kind of shitting on his entire community out loud.

Kara putting her hand on his shoulder brought him back from his memories and then full-strength pulled Winn into a hug.

“I agree. All three of us together are what’s important,” she said, and Winn’s heart was doing funny things in his chest.

“You’re saving the world, and we’re helping you do it,” was James speaking now. Winn was still trapped inside Kara’s arms but he managed to look up, at him and he smiled. James smiled back and those had been the whitest teeth Winn had ever seen.

“Come here, we deserve a group hug,” Kara suggested. And Winn’s heart jolted because, seriously? He could take one Kara hug but, a James one? No, no, no.

“What-“ Winn breathed, trying to make it sound like he was amused. And James was cracking and shifting his legs so he could kneel down to the floor with them and _oh my god_ -

He covered them in those fucking biceps, wrapping all two of them like a freaking octopus. Kara’s face to his shoulder and Winn’s to his chest and if he closed his eyes he could smell both of their colognes -- Kara’s unmistakably peach and vanilla scent and James’ very 212 Carolina Herrera for men--. And she was laughing, her throat vibrating next to Winn’s ear, and James was breathing down the back of his neck and he could listen to his heartbeat.

How long had it passed? Because he felt like he could live inside their arms for eternity, but his brain reminded him that no, that his feelings weren’t reciprocated, that James had a girlfriend of his own and he shouldn’t even be here with either of them, that Kara had a thing going on with their boss’ son, that Winn just wasn’t meant to come in first. He was just the weird, funny kid, the one who everyone wanted to be friends with and nothing more.

His throat was suddenly dry and what was a happy, safe place was now suffocating. He shifted and James lost his grip. Immediately after they all parted, Winn regretted ever moving.

He was having an internal breakdown but Kara and James remained unaware. Winn settled back to his previous spot and sucked in a breath when Kara moved closer to him.

“See? I told you, we are friends that hug,” Kara told James and he cracked a laugh and Winn tried to not to give meaning to the fact that he was still sitting on his legs, knelt, between them, not moving back to the couch, away.  

**Author's Note:**

> I'm SuperOT3 trash, I'm not even sorry.


End file.
